WASHINGTON (AP) — Message to President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans: It’s time to make the Obama health care law more effective. Stop trying to scuttle it.
That’s the resounding word from a national poll released Friday by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. The ...

By The Associated Press
Today in History
Today is Saturday, Aug. 12, the 224th day of 2017. There are 141 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On August 12, 1867, President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him as he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War ...

Although it took longer than expected and the delay caused some to allege the Trump administration was playing politics with the health of the Great Lakes fishery, a federal report containing a series of recommendations on how best to battle the invasive Asian carp in a key access in Illinois ...

WASHINGTON — American campaigns were not always, I can testify from personal witness, about the politics of personal destruction. Your political adversary was your opponent, not your enemy. Just 10 years ago, at the funeral of a former Republican president, the eulogy, at the personal request ...

WASHINGTON — In biblical times, a sanctuary city was a place where someone who had committed unintentional manslaughter could find refuge from “the avenger of blood.” If the offender left the sanctuary city, he could be set upon by a relative of the dead person and killed. No sanctuary ...

By The Associated Press
Today in History
Today is Friday, Aug. 11, the 223rd day of 2017. There are 142 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On August 11, 1997, President Bill Clinton made the first use of the historic line-item veto, rejecting three items in spending ...

NEW YORK — Have a gun license? Plan to bring your gun to my hometown? Don’t.
Mean New York authorities will make your life miserable.
Patricia Jordan and her daughter flew here from her home state of Georgia. She wanted her gun nearby for protection.
Jordan obeyed all the ...

In the digital age, threats are encoded, technology is expedient and the legal tradition of limiting the intrusiveness of government simply can’t keep up.
Law enforcement gadgets such as Stingrays, which pretend to be cell towers to trick phones into sharing locations, and ...

TRAVERSE CITY — A mall in China has installed what are being called “husband storage pods,” which contain a comfortable chair and video games to help him pass the time while she shops.
American malls and big box stores, please follow suit.
I don’t necessarily need the video games, ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans face a problem as they try to defend a slim majority in the Senate and win races elsewhere: Insurgent primary candidates are trying to lay claim to President Donald Trump’s mantle, and knock out the establishment’s choices.
The latest case is in Nevada, ...

By The Associated Press
Today is Thursday, Aug. 10, the 222nd day of 2017. There are 143 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On August 10, 1977, postal employee David Berkowitz was arrested in Yonkers, New York, accused of being “Son of Sam,” the gunman who killed ...

Americans for Responsible Solutions says Michigan needs protection against Congress. Michigan needs protection against its own legislature first.
Americans for Responsible Solutions is a political action committee that argues American homes and streets will be safer with stricter gun laws and ...

WASHINGTON — In crafting the platform in Cleveland on which Donald Trump would run, America Firsters inflicted a major defeat on the War Party.
The platform committee rejected a plank to pull us deeper into Ukraine, by successfully opposing new U.S. arms transfers to Kiev.
Improved ...

WASHINGTON — “Sound practical judgment that is independent of specialized knowledge, training, or the like; normal native intelligence.” — Dictionary.com’s definition of common sense.
Sometimes what used to be called “common sense” can seem radical in Washington, which is used ...

By The Associated Press
Today is Wednesday, Aug. 9, the 221st day of 2017. There are 144 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On August 9, 1945, three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, a U.S. B-29 Superfortress code-named Bockscar dropped a nuclear device ...

The Escanaba City Council deserves praise for deciding to take swift action to put changes to the city’s fireworks ordinance in place in a timely manner. Currently, the city of Escanaba allows fireworks to be used four days before, four days after, and on the day of 10 federally-recognized ...

BERKELEY — The demise of the Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act is hardly the end of the story. Donald Trump will not let this loss stand.
Since its inception in 2010, Republicans have made the Affordable Care Act a symbol of Obama-Clinton overreach — part of a supposed ...

WASHINGTON — Insidious is the force that causes us to dream of things we wish (or don’t wish) were so.
Thus, on the eve of this column’s creation, I dreamt of Donald J. Trump. We were seated at a dinner table for eight, but the other six chairs were empty. We spoke of many things, from ...

By The Associated Press
Today in History
Today is Tuesday, Aug. 8, the 220th day of 2017. There are 145 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On August 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon, facing damaging new revelations in the Watergate scandal, announced he would resign ...

A package of emergency funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs was approved by the U.S. Senate recently. It includes $2.1 billion for a special program to ensure veterans are not kept waiting for health care treatment at VA facilities.
Meanwhile, the agency continues to spend in some ...